by JOSHUA SOBOL
IT IS 1942 in the Vilna Ghetto, Lithuania; the death squads are already at work. The terrorised Jews respond by opening a theatre company. In defiance of the Nazis, they skilfully use the medium of Yiddish theatre to explore their world - a world where life is a luxury.
This powerful play, premiered at the Royal National Theatre in 1989, is a sensitive and moving evocation of life in the ghetto. The vivid drama is enhanced by live music and song - Jeremy Sams' original score based on the authentic Yiddish tradition.
GHETTO played the Secombe Theatre, Sutton, February 11 - 14 1998
THE VILNA GHETTO
THE CHARACTERS
THE SONGS
THE AUTHOR'S NOTES
THE COMPANY
THE STORY AND PRODUCTION PHOTOS
The following review of GHETTO appeared in the Sutton Advertiser on 13 February 1998:
Secombe Centre: Ghetto
Donald Madgwick
FIRST the good news. For sheer bravura and technical excellence I have to vote this far and away the best schools production I have seen for a long time. So take a bow all of you: Wilson's School with Wallington High School for Girls, Nonsuch School and Saint Philomena's School collectively known as Shock Tactics.
Now the bad. Like Wellington at Waterloo, it's hard pounding. Nearly four hours of what I can only call unremitting worthiness. "We'll live forever", they all sing at the last number. Don't they mean go on forever?
The play is by Joshua Sobol in a version by David Lan, with music - much of it, admittedly, moving - by the inhabitants of the Vilna Ghetto, translated and arranged by Jeremy Sams. An impressive line-up: yet in spite of all the tremendous efforts of the cast, the drama is smothered under an avalanche of talk. The academic arguments have been endlessly rehearsed for the past 50 years. How far did the Jews co-operate in their own destruction? Is it morally justified to send x people to their death to save the greater number of y?
In the context of the play, was Gens, chief of the Jewish police in the Vilna Ghetto, on balance a force for good or for evil? The establishment of a theatre in the ghetto, itself a highly dramatic subject, gets swamped by such debates as these. But director Jeff Shaw keeps his eye on the ball; and his production could hardly do the play better service.
Michael Pegler is the chillingly sadistic SS Officer Kittel with the slightly unhinged quality that comes from unbridled power. He also plays Doctor Paul with great assurance. With her expressive vocal tone and range, Anna Lusser is simply compelling as the singer Hayyah. Justin Audibert is right on the button as the tailor Weiskopf, the ghetto's Mr Fixit. Andrew Speller as Gens and Paul Sewell as the librarian Kruk both give fine value, as does Elliot Taylor as the ventriloquist, with Matthew Lamble's eerie study in ambiguity as the dummy.
Bouquets all round for all that. But how about something a little shorter next time? Hamlet, perhaps?
IT IS 1942 in the Vilna Ghetto, Lithuania; the death squads are already at work. The terrorised Jews respond by opening a theatre company. In defiance of the Nazis, they skilfully use the medium of Yiddish theatre to explore their world - a world where life is a luxury.
This powerful play, premiered at the Royal National Theatre in 1989, is a sensitive and moving evocation of life in the ghetto. The vivid drama is enhanced by live music and song - Jeremy Sams' original score based on the authentic Yiddish tradition.
GHETTO played the Secombe Theatre, Sutton, February 11 - 14 1998
THE VILNA GHETTO
THE CHARACTERS
THE SONGS
THE AUTHOR'S NOTES
THE COMPANY
THE STORY AND PRODUCTION PHOTOS
The following review of GHETTO appeared in the Sutton Advertiser on 13 February 1998:
Secombe Centre: Ghetto
Donald Madgwick
FIRST the good news. For sheer bravura and technical excellence I have to vote this far and away the best schools production I have seen for a long time. So take a bow all of you: Wilson's School with Wallington High School for Girls, Nonsuch School and Saint Philomena's School collectively known as Shock Tactics.
Now the bad. Like Wellington at Waterloo, it's hard pounding. Nearly four hours of what I can only call unremitting worthiness. "We'll live forever", they all sing at the last number. Don't they mean go on forever?
The play is by Joshua Sobol in a version by David Lan, with music - much of it, admittedly, moving - by the inhabitants of the Vilna Ghetto, translated and arranged by Jeremy Sams. An impressive line-up: yet in spite of all the tremendous efforts of the cast, the drama is smothered under an avalanche of talk. The academic arguments have been endlessly rehearsed for the past 50 years. How far did the Jews co-operate in their own destruction? Is it morally justified to send x people to their death to save the greater number of y?
In the context of the play, was Gens, chief of the Jewish police in the Vilna Ghetto, on balance a force for good or for evil? The establishment of a theatre in the ghetto, itself a highly dramatic subject, gets swamped by such debates as these. But director Jeff Shaw keeps his eye on the ball; and his production could hardly do the play better service.
Michael Pegler is the chillingly sadistic SS Officer Kittel with the slightly unhinged quality that comes from unbridled power. He also plays Doctor Paul with great assurance. With her expressive vocal tone and range, Anna Lusser is simply compelling as the singer Hayyah. Justin Audibert is right on the button as the tailor Weiskopf, the ghetto's Mr Fixit. Andrew Speller as Gens and Paul Sewell as the librarian Kruk both give fine value, as does Elliot Taylor as the ventriloquist, with Matthew Lamble's eerie study in ambiguity as the dummy.
Bouquets all round for all that. But how about something a little shorter next time? Hamlet, perhaps?
